This article focuses on the emergence of private art collecting and the art market in Buenos Aires from the late 19th century up to the 1910s. In the absence of artistic institutions, like museums or academies, the Buenos Aires case is unique in Latin-America. Its art system was driven by art dealers and collectors. Local art commerce was developed in the city first through “bazaars” (unspecialized stores) and, at the end of the 19th century, through the installation of the first professional art galleries. Local art buyers favored European contemporary paintings and sculptures and made numerous purchases in renowned art galleries like the Paris-based Boussod, Valadon & Cie Gallery. At the same time, foreign dealers and particularly the French State planned international exhibitions in order to profit from the acquisition power of the upper class in Buenos Aires and to develop a receptive market in the city.

In the first decade of the Third Republic, sculptor Eugène Guillaume could be numbered among those men who sought to uphold the conservative traditions of official French art in the face of inevitable change. This article examines Eugène Guillaume’s essay, “Michel-Ange, sculpteur,” the first major French study of Michelangelo’s sculpture published in a special edition of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1876. It demonstrates the strategies employed by Guillaume to bring Michelangelo into the Academic fold as part of the conservative “call to order” in the fine arts in the first decade of the Third Republic.

Goupil & Cie, originally established as Rittner & Goupil in Paris in 1829, was one of the most prominent art and print dealers of the nineteenth century. By establishing a branch in New York in 1848, Goupil pioneered a multinational gallery system that significantly influenced the business of art in the United States. Using this branch as a case study, this article investigates the strategy Goupil & Cie and its associates implemented to successfully balance the perks and perils of operating a business remotely.